Saturday, February 24, 2018

Russian Interference in US Politics a Crime However Ineffective It May have Been, Gozman Says

Paul
Goble

Staunton, February 24 – Neither Russian
officials nor Americans who follow their lead understand that “the
ineffectiveness of [Moscow’s] interference in American elections and the
shamefully low level of the professionalism” of those involved does not make
the crime involved any less serious, Leonid Gozman says.

It is true that the amount of traffic
that the fake Russian accounts generated was “relatively small,” the Russian opposition
politician and commentator says; and it is true that those involved often knew
English poorly and that the whole foolish project did not have as much an
impact as Moscow hoped (echo.msk.ru/blog/leonid_gozman/2153424-echo/).

But that in no way
lessens the charge of interference despite the attempts of some in Russia and
the US to use this as a justification for ignoring what Moscow has been up to,
Gozman continues.If you break into a
house and steal only some small thing, it is still breaking and entering even
if it shows that you are not much of a thief.

Moreover,
although Gozman does not address this in his comment, those who engage in such
breaking and entering create an atmosphere of fear and suspicion that goes far
beyond the act itself. That is why criminal law punishes those who engage in
such things, even if the value of the specific things taken is relatively
small.

The
same thing, the Moscow writer points out, should happen in this case of
breaking and entering into a political system not your own.